The hardest thing when teaching art is to have half of a class finished, and the other half twiddling their thumbs! What to do to keep those hands busy? There is always free draw, which I think kids should have time to draw whatever they want. The problem is when that is all that they want to do. Sometimes, it seems that they finish quickly just so they can free draw. grrrrr.
I created two free activity drawers in the art room. Some of the activities are shown here, and I have some other ones as well. One is a metal board that has architectural magents (domes, columns, windows, etc) to create buildings. I also have wiki-stixx to make and leave in the bag...
I got these magnet sets a long time ago, and they love them. They make all kinds of designs, and it all stays together in the little case...perfect!
The popular Tanagram puzzle
Tracers, well, they like them.
Paper Dolls. Kids these days do not know how to make paper dolls. This was something we made tons of when I was a child. Once the girls learn how, they love to make them and decorate them. I think this project helps prediction and other engineering skills. But mostly, they are fun!
I have a cat's cradle book and several looped yarns for trying the different versions. I had one girl really do well at this while having some issues in her classroom... she loved that she was the "pro"!
But, when this is a first graders free draw, ya gotta love the free draw experience as well!!!
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